Displaced
by Badept
Summary: Once upon a time he roamed the hills and forests of Mistral. He stood shoulder to shoulder with his comrades-in-arms as they fought to keep their families safe from those who wished to do them harm. That is all over now, though. What is left for one stripped of all that they knew and loved?
1. Chapter 1: A Lost Soul

**Here it is, my first addition to the RWBY Portal! I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

In the vast forests of Vale, two armies fought. The clash of blades and the shouts of soldiers, accompanied by gunshots, sounded throughout the forest. Midst the red trees, two people fought ferociously, as they both knew that if their opponent scored a hit, it would surely spell their end.

A Young Man brought his sword up quickly and parried the blade that came toward him, the man behind it having every intent on ending his life. In the light of that damned moon he could see the hatred in his eyes burning. Hatred at the Young Man who had slain many of his comrades, hatred at the Young Man's kingdom for allowing him to be a soldier under their banner. The man once again struck out at him, but he parried it once more before slamming his shoulder into the man's chest, which caused him to stumble back. He gripped the blade of his sword and brought the crossguard up and into one the man's now vulnerable eyes. The man let out an agonizing, almost primal scream as he dropped his sword and clutched his now ruined eye.

The Young Man saw his opening and took it. He had done this many times before and if he survived this battle he guessed that he would probably do it again.

He gripped the grip of his sword tightly as he sidestepped and brought the blade to his enemy's neck with great force, cutting his head off in one clean motion. He did not see his lifeless corpse drop limply to the forest floor, for his attention was occupied as he scanned the area for any more possible hostiles.

As the red at the tinges of his vision cleared, he had begun to take in the scene around him. What he saw made his heart sink. From what he could gather, he and that son-of-a-bitch had been the only ones who were still alive in this clearing.

From the amount of bodies, he guessed that the battle was nearing it's end, but he could barely make out which side had suffered more losses, but he hoped it had been the valen who had gotten the short end of the stick. He checked the holster at his hip and saw that his pistol was still there, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he found that it remained on his person. He would need it if he wanted to return to the frontline and rejoin his comrades.

He walked through the carnage, ever alert for any sign of movement. Soldiers from Vale had a habit of playing dead if the battle looked grim for them, and he didn't want to join the ones who weren't acting the part. He stumbled through the clearing until he reached the other side, which was where the sounds of battle were most prevalent.

From the shadows of the trees, someone charged at him. The Young Man braced for the attacker as they rammed him with their shield, trying to stumble him. It didn't work as well as they had anticipated, but it caused the Young Man to jump back as the figure thrust his sword at where he had been previously.

The two clashed once more, and as the two fought ferociously, the Young Man lost the upper hand as his foe parried his sword away and struck quickly.

The Young Man felt the sword puncture his abdomen, and he screamed. He dropped his sword from the pain, drew his pistol and fired point blank past the figure's shield. He knew the shot had connected, since he heard the figure cry out, and judging from the wail of pain that accompanied the shot, he had hurt the bastard bad.

The Young Man's Foe kicked him forward and off of his sword. Even with the injury he had sustained, he knew he had won this. The Young Man hit the ground and landed on his side. His vision was blurry, but he tried to make out what his killer looked like. All he could make out was the emblem on the shield.

That was all he could make out before the man staggered off and into the forest once more, clutching his side. The Young Man tried to stand, but he just couldn't find the strength to get out of his kneel. When he spied his precious blade he reached for it, but dropped to the ground once more and rolled onto his side as the moonlight, along with the flames of the forest, illuminated his bloodied form.

He saw the moon once more and it's shattered visage greeted him coldly.

 _This is it, isn't it?_

He felt his eyelids start to get heavy. He reached out toward that damned moon, his gloved hand grasping at it fruitlessly.

He didn't have the strength to call out, to call for help. Not like there was any, though. He knew that the Grimm had most likely been biding their time, waiting for the battle to move so they could feast upon the dead and dying like so much carrion.

His vision blurred as his eyes closed and he let his arm fall to the ground limply. He waited now, for the time of his end to come. Something strange happened though. He felt, as he began to depart this world, himself lift up. It felt like someone was carrying him, carefully, as if they would break the Young Man. He calmed down at this sensation. Is this what dying felt like? At least it wasn't as awful as he had thought it would have been.

He relaxed and let the force whisk him away to wherever it was to take him.

* * *

In the beautiful land of Vale, there was an academy for Huntsmen and Huntresses. There, the students were milling about on their day off, trying to relax as best they could before they were to continue their studies. They were to be the protectors of the world of Remnant, and it was without a doubt that they felt that they deserved this reprieve. Along the massive avenue that led to the entrance of the academy, a group of young girls walked and talked.

"What's with this weird weather?" One of them, a blonde-haired girl, asked as she looked toward the sky.

The sky had darkened considerably. It'd been like this for quite some time now. At least once a day, it would change quickly, from sunny to overcast in just a few minutes. It would clear up just as fast, leaving anyone who had seen it confused.

"I know what you mean. To be honest though: I kind of like it." One of them replied.

This red-hooded girl also brought her silver eyes to the sky to study the overcast weather that had not been there five minutes ago.

She turned to look at the two others. One of them, a girl dressed in white, looked at her curiously, before smiling.

"Weiss, what did you want to tell me earlier?" The Silver-Eyed Girl asked.

"Well, Ruby." Weiss replied. "I was going to ask you about the upcoming-"

She was cut short by a loud bang, akin to a clap of thunder, that startled them. They looked up and saw that a bright white beam of light had hit the avenue some ways away, even having left a perfect circle in the cloudy weather, and that the other students had begun to converge on it's impact point. The first of the girls to start making their way over was Ruby, who, with her semblance, sped over to the point of impact.

"Wh-what's going on?!" Weiss asked.

She looked around as Yang and her fellow students made their way over to the point.

"Blake! Come on! We've-" She started.

She looked around once more and noticed that her compatriot had already left her side and had went to join the forming crowd.

"Blake! Wait!" She shouted, following after.

When they got there, they couldn't push through. It seemed like all of the school had come to see what had landed. They could hear the outbursts of the other students.

"Who is he?!"

"Why is he hurt like that?!"

"He's bleeding real bad! Someone go get a professor or something!"

The two of them pushed through the crowd and joined their friends, who were at the forefront. Ruby, along with Yang, had knelt down next to an unconscious young man. He looked to be close to Yang's age, if not older. His vest, made of leather, was filthy. It, along with his chain shirt, tunic and pants, were spattered with dirt, mud, and what was quite obviously blood, and it made it hard to see how much blood had poured from the large stab wound in his gut and pooled on the ground.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!" Someone shouted.

It was Miss Goodwitch. She shoved her way through the crowd, determined to see what had caused such a commotion. When she saw the Young Man, she gasped and covered her mouth in shock at the sight that presented itself before her. Ruby looked at her with desperation and fear quite present in her eyes. She'd moved his head to her lap as she tried her best to comfort the horrendously wounded young man.

"He needs help!" She said.

The Young Man's eyes shot open and he took in a huge gasp of air. What followed was one of the most agonizing, most pained screams that Ruby had ever heard as he clutched his wound. His eyes darted to and fro as he tried to calculate what had happened. He felt a hand on his arm. His head jerked to see Ruby, who had moved to squeeze his other hand.

"It's going to be okay. You're safe." She said, her voice soft and not unpleasant.

"Where?" He asked, his voice hoarse and weak.

"You're at Beacon Academy." She answered.

" _Kingdom?_ " He asked.

"You're in Vale."

His eyes widened at her response. He looked at the surrounding students and then at Ruby. He began to hyperventilate, looking around frantically. He saw what he was looking for: his sword. It was just at Blake's feet. He reached for it, yearned to grab it and fight his way out, but it was just too far away.

"Yang! Carry him to the infirmary!" Goodwitch ordered.

Yang nodded then picked the young man up, running for the infirmary as she held him in a princess carry. He didn't have the strength to struggle anymore. He was just so tired. So very tired.

As the surprisingly strong girl carried him, he slipped into consciousness once more.

* * *

Headmaster Ozpin looked through the observation window at their visitor. They'd scrubbed him clean and got him in a hospital gown. He looked at the Young Man as he slept as his aura, aided their own efforts to keep him in this world. Here and there he'd see the Young Man squirm or twitch, as if he were in the throes of a nightmare.

"And you say you saw him fall from the sky?" He asked.

He turned his head to look at the two young huntresses who had accompanied Glynda. When he looked at the two he could easily read them. Yang had kept a blank expression through the entire ordeal, having stayed stoic for her sister, even despite how heavily the Young Man had bled upon her. Ruby, on the other hand displayed a look of shock instead of her normal cheery demeanor, her eyes staring off into the distance at nothing in particular.

"Not exactly 'fall from the sky'. More like 'come down in a flash of light... From the sky'. Yang explained.

She looked at her sister and nudged her with her elbow. That looked to draw Ruby back to Remnant as she gathered her thoughts.

"Yeah... we, uh, didn't see him fall or anything. One second the day was normal and then suddenly we had some guy dying in the middle of Beacon." Ruby added.

Ozpin looked at the two. In his eyes many things were noticeable: understanding, compassion, and a spark of curiosity that would no doubt satiate itself when the Young Man awoke.

"You two go and get some rest. I'll have you excused from the rest of tomorrow's classes." He ordered.

Ruby shook her head in response.

"I can't, Headmaster. I was the first person he saw and I think I should be the one to let him know he's okay, that it's going to be okay. I saw how he reacted when I told him where he was and I want to know why. That look he had, the look he gave me, isn't something I can just simply forget about." She explained.

Ozpin smirked at that. He knew that's what she'd say. She wasn't one to give up that easily.

* * *

He awoke in a bed. He felt things in his arms and could hear a steady beep from behind him. When he looked he saw that he was connected by wires and tubes to all sorts of strange machines he'd never seen before. He looked around the dim and sterile room and hoped to see someone, anyone who could fill him in on what was going on. In the two chairs in the room sat a pair of young girls, both of them soundly asleep, the one with the cloak resting her head on the other's shoulder. He remembered the one with the cloak. She had silver eyes. He couldn't recall who the other one was though.

"Hey..." He said.

His throat was dry and his voice rough and gravelly and groggy. They didn't even move when he called out.

"Hey."

The two still hadn't shown any sign of consciousness. He sat up and rested his arms on the table connected to his bed.

"Hey!"

"Wha-?!"

The Silver-Eyed Girl awoke with a start, which woke the other girl as well. The two looked around the room frantically before they saw that the Young Man was awake. In a flash the Silver-Eyed Girl was over by his bedside as rose petals trailed behind her. She leaned over the bed's rail, and the Young man could easily make out the look of pure relief her eyes showed.

"It's good to see that you're okay." She said.

"The doctors thought you'd die. You really bled a lot. Like, _a lot_." The Blonde One added.

In the light from that damned moon outside his window he saw that the front of her rather provocative choice of attire was red. Blood red. And when he put two and two together he grimaced.

He watched as the Blonde One walked over to the bedside. She leaned on the rail of the bed and looked at him, studying his damaged figure with a look of curiosity that would have put Rook to shame.

He'd been cleaned up since he had lost consciousness. His clothes had been replaced with a hospital gown. Without the strip of cloth he used to tie his hair back with it fell down, almost over his eyes.

"Who are you two?" He asked.

"Oh! I'm Ruby Rose. It's nice to meet you." Ruby said.

"The one who..." He stated.

He looked as if he was trying to remember, but just couldn't.

"Rested your head in her lap." The Blonde added.

Ruby didn't want him to know that. It became apparent as her eyes widened and she blushed and glared at the Blonde.

"What? It's true." Yang added, smirking.

"You are?" The Young Man asked.

"Yang Xiao-Long. I carried you here." Yang answered.

An awkward silence loomed in the room. After a moment, the Young Man broke the silence.

"I'm sorry. I... I just don't know how to react to this." He explained.

"Why?" Ruby asked.

"I'd never expect Valen to save a Mistralian like me. I mean you never surrendered so we thought you'd take no quarter." He explained.

They'd never heard those terms before. Just where was this guy from?

"Don't be silly! You were hurt so we did the right thing." Ruby replied.

He looked at her, confused at how she could say that when she must have knew the things that

"Where're my sword and my gun?" He asked.

"After we got you here Miss Goodwitch took them with her." Ruby explained.

"Who?" He asked.

"She's a professor here."

"That's right. You said I'm at an academy." He replied.

"Yep. Beacon Academy." Yang interjected.

"Academy for what? You learnin' to be doctors or something?" He asked.

"Huntsmen and huntresses. You know; they fight the Grimm and save the world." Ruby answered.

"Never heard of em'. That a Vale thing?" He asked.

"You've never heard of..." Ruby said.

The two girls looked at each other, their mouths agape in disbelief. They leaned forward, their eyes alight with curiosity.

" **How?!** " They asked.

The disbelief in their voices, along with the fact they asked simultaneously, shocked the Young Man as he sunk into his bed in an effort to make some distance between him and the two Valen.

"I've just never heard of them! I've never seen one in Mistral!" He answered.

The two girls looked at each other once more. Both of them looked rather confused. They looked back at him. Just where had this Young Man come from that they didn't have huntsmen? Their pondering was cut short when the door to his room slid open and two more people entered.

The Young Man remembered the pretty blonde with glasses from before, but he'd never seen the bespectacled, white-haired man. The two girls turned to look at them as they walked over to the Young Man's bed.

"So our visitor is awake." The White-Haired Man said.

"So it seems." The Blonde added.

The Young Man looked at the two new faces. He had questions and he bet that they had answers. They looked important, at least if he had to take a guess. They were the oldest people in the room by leagues, so they had to be important.

"Alright; who are _you_ two?" He asked.

"You first, if you may." The White Haired Man answered.

"Lieutenant Wetzlar Traurig, Fourth Battalion of the Special Detachment Regiment of the Unified Armies of Mistral, class one swordsman. I will not speak anymore until you can affirm that I will not be tortured for information regarding the current plans of the Unified Armies of Mistral." Wetzlar replied.

Yang looked at Ruby, worry and confusion present in her eyes. Ruby returned the look. Just where did this guy come from?

"Hmm."

The White-Haired Man paused upon hearing Wetzlar's introduction. His eyes drifted to the floor. Wetzlar had seen that look time and time again. It was the look of someone lost in thought, of someone thinking carefully of their next words. After a moment, he looked back at Wetzlar, his expression having gone from one of indifference to one of curiosity.

"I am Ozpin, and I welcome you to my academy. You needn't worry. You won't come to any harm." Ozpin said.

The bespectacled blonde nodded, her expression not changing from the stern look she wore.

"Professor Glynda Goodwitch. It's a pleasure to meet you, Wetzlar Traurig."

"I'm still confused. I remember being in a forest, a red one, then the section I was assigned to lead getting ambushed by Valen soldiers. I got stabbed, and now I'm here."

"Hmm. You were in a red forest in Vale, you say?" Ozpin asked.

"I'd guess. I don't know the name of it since it wasn't important to the mission." Wetzlar answered.

"The Forever Fall! It's this big red forest outside Beacon." Ruby added.

"And when did you say this invasion began?" Goodwitch asked.

"About a week ago. You should know that though, if we're actually in Vale." Wetzlar answered.

"That doesn't make sense." Ozpin said.

"Why doesn't it make sense?" Wetzlar asked.

A silence lingered in the room after he answered that, the two faculty members exchanged looks of worry, of surprise, until Ruby broke the silence.

"Mistral, well, they don't have an army anymore." Ruby interjected.

Wetzlar's eyes widened. He looked at Ruby. His face caught somewhere between confusion and disbelief and his eyes showed fear.

"What?" He asked.

His voice had a slight waver to it, as if he had just heard the worst news that he'd ever heard in his life. She saw this and had begun to hesitate.

"Y-yeah... When the third groups of huntsmen and huntresses graduated they handed over protection of the kingdom to them." Ruby explained.

He stared at her in disbelief. His hands started trembling and the beep grew more rapid.

"When... When did this war end?" He asked.

"Almost eighty years ago, I think." She answered.

The answer hit him like a sledgehammer.

"You're lying." He said.

His voice was quiet.

"She's not lying, Wetzlar. The War ended decades ago." Goodwitch explained.

"No. _No._ This _can't_ be real."

The desperation in his voice felt like it had stuck a knife in Ruby's heart. Her good nature wanted her to find some way to comfort him, but how could she?

"I'm just asleep. This is all a dream. I'll wake up in my tent any minute now and Casimir will be making breakfast and Rook'll be coming back from a scouting mission and I'll catch Marty so we can go over the attack plans and... And..." He said.

Ozpin looked at the pleading young man. He wanted answers as much as Wetzlar did. He stepped forward, his cane tapped on the floor as he did so. He placed a hand on Wetzlar's bed.

"I'm afraid not, Wetzlar. The war, now known as the Great War, ended eighty years ago." He reiterated.

"That doesn't make sense! None of this makes any goddamned sense! How!? How did I end up here!?" He said.

He ran his hands through his hair as his eyes widened and the heart monitor began to beep more rapid.

"I plan on looking further into your predicament. Just rest for now. You've been through a lot. Glynda..." He said.

The others looked at him expectantly.

"Look after him for now. Help him acclimate." He finished.

She nodded in response. She knew Ozpin, and he wasn't heartless. He'd do his very best to help this young man. If what he had just said is true, than they had just stumbled upon something rather extraordinary.

"Miss Rose, Miss Xiao-Long, you two head back to your room." He ordered.

"Alright." Yang said.

She left without hesitation, much to Ruby's surprise.

"You too, Ruby." Ozpin said.

"But-!" She pleaded, but with a raise of his hand she stopped.

"You've done enough for him for today, just return to your room and get some proper rest." He said.

She nodded, then left, her eyes downcast.

"Mister Traurig, I ask that you behave. Even with how far medical science has come, your wounds were still rather grievous. Eighty years ago it would have definitely been fatal, but for now I simply ask that you refrain from any strenuous activity for the next few days to give your wounds time to fully heal. We've done our best for you. I hope you know that." He explained.

"I still don't get why you'd do this for me. I'm not from your kingdom." He said.

"All that was put aside with the Treaty of Vytal, Mister Traurig. The Grimm are a much more dangerous threat than our fellow man." Goodwitch added.

"Sorry, but I'm tired. Can I get some rest? This is just.. Too much to take in." He asked.

"Certainly." She answered.

Ozpin and Goodwitch left, leaving Wetzlar alone to ponder.

* * *

Wetzlar looked out the large window in his room. The campus of this place was teeming with life. He looked down at the people as they walked. According to Ruby, who had visited him repeatedly over the last few days, he'd been the talk of the school.

 _The guy who fell out of the sky._

That's what they called him, according to her. He didn't remember any of that. Just waking up in agony with his head in her lap. He heard a knock at the door.

"Come in." He said.

It was one of the nurses. What stood out the most were the pair of cat ears that poked out of her aqua hair. Faunus were what Goodwitch called them. He'd heard of them before. He'd heard tales of beastfolk in the untamed swamps and wild places of Mistral. Well, they _were_ untamed in his time. Not so much now. They'd litter you with arrows if you got too close to their camps and they couldn't speak a lick of the common tongue. He remembered some of the stories that he had been told by explorers and adventurers that rested at the inn at a village, Briar Glen's only neighbor, of a far-off kingdom called Vacuo that had a large population of them that could speak the common tongue, and had even formed a large society.

He didn't see why though. They seemed okay.

"Mister Traurig! If you're ready, you're free to be discharged." She said.

"Alright." He replied.

She walked over and began disconnecting him from the machines he'd been hooked up to. She didn't remind him of the ones he had faced in Vacuo, as she wasn't trying to run him through with a spear. If it weren't for the cat ears, he would have just thought that she was just a pretty young woman. When she was finished, she walked out for a moment and returned with a wheelchair.

"Uhh..." He started, confused.

"It's procedure. I know you can walk just fine, but you need to leave in this." She explained.

"If you say so." He replied.

He went over and sat down in the chair, letting the nurse push him to the discharge wing. He was surprised that a school could afford all this. She wheeled him into a private changing room. It wasn't as that much, just a place to change out of his gown. Lining one of the walls was a row of lockers. The nurse opened one of them and handed him a bundle of clothes along with a small leather backpack.

"Professor Ozpin has given you these clothes to wear. Yours were rather damaged and will be returned to you when they're repaired and thoroughly cleaned." She explained.

He looked the clothes over. They weren't too extravagant: just a few grey shirts, a light jacket, a few pairs of pants, and a pair of shoes with some socks to go with them. They were plain, at least for this place. He'd seen what some of the students wore, and compared to them, this was without a doubt the tamest in it's design. When he saw that the strip of cloth he used to tie his hair back had been washed, he smiled.

He pushed his brown hair out of his face and tied it back with the bright orange strip of cloth. The cloth was long, reaching his shoulders when he had tightened it.

"That's a pretty tattoo, Mister Traurig." The Nurse stated.

He knew what she was talking about. The tattoo on his forehead was simple: just three green dots in a triangle pattern on the middle of his forehead that stood out against his fair skin.

"Ain't nothing." He replied.

"I don't think so. It's... if I had to say; elegant in it's simplicity. What's it's purpose?"

"Something I got during the war."

His tone wasn't very welcoming and she noticed it.

"Hmm. Not up for talking about it?" She said, raising one of her eyebrows.

"Yep." He replied.

"As you wish. For now, Headmaster Ozpin is allowing you to stay in one of the unused dorm rooms until we get all this sorted out. Along with that, he's given you that small bag of essentials."

"Essentials?" He asked.

"A shaving kit and a scroll, some lien and a pair of earplugs, among other things." She answered.

"Lien? That some kind of Vale money?"

He reached into the pack and pulled out a leather wallet. Inside it were a bunch of colored cards. He looked at them. Money was supposed to be in a wallet, but as he looked through it, he saw no money. Only the cards.

"This ain't money. It's a buncha cards." He deadpanned.

"No, that's money." She replied.

"These are _**cards.**_ "

He emphasized his point by taking one out of the wallet and holding it close to her face.

"How is this money? It's a square. Not a coin or nothin' normal." He asked.

"That's money these days. A Remnant-wide currency used by everyone." The Nurse replied.

He looked at the lien once more as he tried to wrap his head around the idea of them. He decided he'd rather not worry about it at that time and focus on other things.

"Now, what's this about a scroll? Like a paper scroll?" He asked.

"Nah. Lemme show you." She answered.

She reached into the pack and pulled out a small white rectangle. He looked at it. It wasn't that big, maybe about the length of his index finger. He noticed a yellow, diamond-shaped button on the rectangle. When she passed it to him he pressed it and the thing expanded. He yelped in surprise and dropped it. The Nurse, in response, caught it rather deftly a few inches from the floor and handed it back to him. He looked at her, then at the scroll, then at her again.

 _Guess she really is part cat._

"Be careful with that. They're expensive." She scolded.

"Uhh... Alright. Now just what the fuck's this thing for?" He asked.

He inspected the "scroll". It wasn't too big, since he could hold it comfortably, if not gently. He felt like he'd break the thing if he grasped it firmly.

"Don't swear. It's unbecoming of someone your age." She answered.

"You ain't that much older than me! Why're you scoldin' me for it?"

"School rule. While you're here you've got to conform to them. They're on the scroll so read over them when you've got time."

"Alright."

She looked at him in surprise.

"You're taking this all rather well."

"You either get used to things quick or you die. That's what war taught me."

He slung the bag over his shoulder and smirked.

"Walk me to the door?" He asked.

"Why certainly." She answered.

The two left the room and walked side by side to the entrance.

"So... where am I supposed to go?" He asked.

"Ozpin covered that as well. He's enlisted some help to show you around." She answered.

"And who might that be?"

His answer came in a swirl of rose petals.

"Hey Wetzlar!" Ruby said.

"Where'd you come from?!" He asked.

He looked around frantically as he tried to see where she had appeared from, but he couldn't pinpoint it. One second she wasn't there and then she was. His search was cut short as she grabbed his arm and began to drag him somewhere.

"So you're gonna be in the first year dorm? I'll have to show you where everything is so you don't get lost and walk into..." She spoke.

He couldn't keep up with what she was saying. She spoke a mile a minute and he couldn't keep up and he had to stop her, so he simply stopped struggling and let her drag him along. He looked back at the nurse longingly, but she simply smiled and waved goodbye as she went back into the infirmary.

He shook his head. He didn't see a way out of this. Ruby was surprisingly strong for her size. With him being well over a head taller than her, she was still able to drag him with little effort. As he resigned to his fate he turned back to Ruby and he tried to keep up with her.

"-And so we're gonna have to introduce you to the professors except for Miss Goodwitch and then I'll show you where the dining hall is!" She finished.

"Uhh... Sounds great?"

"Doesn't it?! Come on!"

* * *

"So this is the place?" He asked Ruby.

He looked at the large building that stood before the pair. It wasn't too far from the actual school grounds itself, but it was far enough that he couldn't see the grounds anymore due to the foliage that separated the dorms from it.

"Yep! The first year dorms!" Ruby answered.

She smiled and outstretched her arms in a gesture of presentation. He studied the outside of the dorms. His face went from surprise to confusion as he looked to be studying the dorm itself.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"Uh..."

"Look, I know the dorm doesn't look like much but I'm sure you'll love it here! There's Yang and Blake and Weiss and-" She said.

"Ruby," Wetzlar interjected.

"-And then there's Ren and Jaune and-"

"Ruby,"

"-It's the closest to the main campus so you can really cut it close when you need to get to your first class and-"

"Ruby!"

"Yeah?"

She looked at him expectantly.

"I'm sure I'll be fine. Let's find my room and we'll figure it out from there."

"Uh... Sure. Let's go."

He walked ahead of her, opened the door and motioned for her to enter.

"Ladies first."

He smirked playfully, and Ruby smirked back.

"Oh! Such a gentleman." She said, playing along.

She entered and he followed behind her.

* * *

Wetzlar sat in his room and watched the sun go down over the halls of his new home. He once more looked around his new accommodations.

The place was definitely meant for students. That was something that even Blind Old Brill from his village could have figured out. The four beds, three of them unused, definitely made it seem like it was a dorm room.

Everything else on the other hand...

In the last two hours he'd heard a fair share of strange noises from the room below his. Now, it wasn't that the noises were strange in the sense that they sounded like grimm or something just a sinister, but that it sounded like people were making the strangest racket he ever could bear witness to.

He'd been doing a good job of fighting the urge to discover who had made the racket, but his patience had definitely worn thin.

When he was knocked off his bed by the bed being launched into the air, he lost it. He stormed out of his room and descended the stairs two at a time. When he reached the third floor he spied a group of people standing outside a door, which he guessed was to the room that caused such a commotion.

"They the ones causing the shaking?!" He asked.

One of them, a young man with black hair and pale pink eyes, nodded in response.

When Wetzlar reached for the door handle, someone grabbed his wrist. He saw a young man, probably around the same age as him, with blonde hair and blue eyes.

"I wouldn't do that, buddy. They really get into their pillow fights."

Wetzlar's eyes widened at his warning. How could a pillow fight cause this much of a racket? He dismissed the blonde and proceeded to throw the door open.

His action was met with a familiar voice.

"INCOMIIIIING!"

He didn't have time to react as something white hit him square in the face. The white thing was also surprisingly firm as his head jerked back and he fell backwards.

Everything went dark as he lost consciousness.

* * *

This morning was just as cold and rainy as any other in Mistral, and the tiny village in this valley was just another small village that dotted the kingdom like so many others, but something made this small village stand out amidst the bleak, foggy landscape.

At the village's square stood a row of young children. They could barely be called that, with some of them looking no older than six while others looked almost ten. Behind them stood their parents, some of them sporting looks of worry while others looked confident. Off in the distance the galloping of horses could be heard.

An older man placed his hand on his son's shoulder. His son looked at him worriedly in response. His father smiled down at him.

"You'll be fine, Wetzlar. Don't believe what the older children said. They're just angry that they weren't chosen like you were. Remember: you won't be far from home, either." He said.

"I don't want to go!" Wetzlar replied.

"I know that, but the Lord picks his guardsmen carefully and he saw potential in you. Remember what I've always told you."

"We do what we must,"

Wetzlar lowered his head in shame. He knew what his father would say next, and it always made him relent.

"For the good of the kingdom." His father added.

"For the good of us all." Wetzlar finished.

The galloping drew closer, and with it a train of horses, their riders dressed for battle in their hardened leather and mail. One of them, a man who wore a bronze breastplate, it's emblem, which consisted of a spear over a shield, emblazoned upon it proudly, over his rather regal attire, removed his helm to let his red hair free from it's prison.

The soldiers formed up behind the man as he strode over, helm held under his arm, to the line of children.

He eyed each of them, scrutinizing them all one by one. He'd not said anything yet, but the children began to show their nervousness.

Except for Wetzlar.

He stood stern, at attention, his eyes focused on the distance behind the lord.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the Lord approach him. He could feel his gaze go over him.

"Hmm."

That was the first time they had heard the lord even make a sound.

"You're a fine bunch. To the wagons, all of you." The Lord ordered.

Much to Wetzlar's suprise, the Lord didn't sound harsh in the slightest. He had expected something more stern, more demanding. They walked to the wagons and took their places upon them. As they pulled away, Wetzlar caught sight of his parents one more time.

They both smiled at him, while his other siblings waved goodbye.

He stood up and waved at them in return and didn't stop waving until they were out of sight.

* * *

When he awoke, he was on a bed. It wasn't his bed. He could tell that by the people who watched him, their faces obscured by the light that they blocked, he must have done something to evoke their attention.

His face hurt, especially his nose. It felt like someone had thrown a brick at him. He remembered that he had came down here to stop the incessant racket that had plagued him for the last few hours, and to him it seemed like he had indeed stopped it, but at the cost of his nose.

A fair trade, if he had to say so himself.

"I told you they took their pillow fights seriously." A voice said.

"I'm so sorry Wetzlar I didn't mean to hit you with that it was just that Blake threw it at me so I caught it and threw it back at her but she dodged it and then it hit you when you opened the door and I'm so so sorry please forgive me." Another voice said, rather quickly at that.

He recognized the franticness of the voice, so he called out in response.

"Ruby?" He asked.

"Yeah! Sorry." She answered.

"That was a pillow that hit me?" Wetzlar asked.

The whole group that surrounded the bed nodded in unison.

"Felt like a brick." He added.

"She keeps smut in her pillow." Yang's silhouette explained.

" _Ninjas of Love_ isn't smut! It's mature literature." another voice retorted.

Wetzlar made to stand up, the group parting so he could get off the bed. He looked at the people who had surrounded him. He knew Yang and Ruby, but he didn't know the rest. He remembered some of them, like the two young men and their two female associates, but the two other girls were completely new faces.

One of them, a short girl with orange hair, broke the silence.

"Hey! You're the guy who fell out of the sky, right?" She asked.

He noticed how upbeat her voice was. It was even more upbeat and optimistic-sounding than Ruby's.

"I'd guess so. Name's Wetzlar."

"I'm Nora! Nice to meet ya!"

She went and pointed to each of the other members of the group. She started with the blonde haired young man.

"That's Jaune," She explained.

Jaune nodded to Wetzlar, who nodded back.

"I shoulda listened to ya, Jaune."

Jaune simply shrugged in response. There wasn't much to say, really, and Wetzlar knew that. He honestly should have listened to him but the thought of a pillow fight causing that much of a ruckus was completely unheard of to him.

Nora continued to introduce the other members of the group to him.

"This is Ren, and that's Pyrrha and this is Blake," She continued.

He nodded to them in turn. He was never one for being incredibly formal.

"And that one over there is Weiss!" Nora finished as she pointed to a corner of the room.

Wetzlar looked where she pointed and cringed at what he saw. There, under a proverbial hillock of pillows, a hand reached out, it's fingers twitching every now and then.

"So you're a time traveler?" Jaune asked, his question bringing Wetzlar's attention to him.

The question caught him off guard. Did Ruby tell people that?

"Apparently. I don't remember much about all that. I was kinda... out of it at the time. Apparently the war I fought in ended eighty years ago."

"You fought in the Great War?" Ren asked, seemingly interested.

"We didn't call it that in my time, but yeah. I did. Mistral is my home kingdom and I would've defended it until the day I died, but that's ancient history now. Literally." Wetzlar answered.

An awkward silence filled the room for a moment before Nora, being the ever-so-brilliant person that she was broke it.

"The, uh, dining hall should be serving dinner right about now. Wanna go?" She asked the group.

"Yeah! Let's go." Ruby answered.

The other members nodded in agreement. As they left the room, the last ones to leave were Wetzlar and Ruby. He looked at her quizzically, and she smiled back in response.

 _This place sure is weird._

When they met the night air, Wetzlar noticed that the sun had gone down. As they joined a gathering stream of students, he looked at Ruby once more.

"So this big building is the dining hall?" He asked.

"Yep! Just follow us and act like you've been here the whole time." She answered.

"Well alright." He replied.

When they entered the grandiose and gothic dining hall, he grabbed a tray and fell in line with the rest of the students and did just like Ruby told him to. When he joined them at their table he looked on as the teams chatted and joked with one another, somewhat oblivious to his existence.

He wasn't bothered by it, though. He'd never been one to act chummy with people he barely knew. He'd have to get to know them more if he wanted to really relax around them. He watched them, though.

The way they spoke so casually about the topics at hand, the way that they acted toward each other, reminded him of his section.

 _There's a good chance I'll never see them again._

The thought brought him lower than he had already been, but he didn't show it. Instead he kept eating and kept his eyes on his soup for the time being. He'd finish quickly and head back to his room.

"So Wetzlar. That's how you say it, right? Did you attend schooling before you... ended up here?"

The question brought him back to reality as he looked between the groups. The one with the bright red hair, he guessed, had asked him the question. He couldn't remember her name, though.

"No. I, uh, was finished with basic schooling at the age of ten. After that it was strictly lessons that would assist me on the battlefield." He answered.

"Oh! Well, what part of Mistral are you from? I'm from Mistral as well."

His eyes widened. He let his spoon rest in his bowl as his posture relaxed. Another Mistralian! In Vale, no less!

"I hail from the Northwest Provinces, from the village of Briar Glen." He explained.

The girl smiled at him in response. She must have been happy that he had opened up a bit, he thought.

"I'm also from the Northwest provinces. I believe Briar Glen is near to where I grew up, too."

He chuckled as he thought back to his tiny, sleepy little village that he called home.

"Small world, right? Is the place still as small as I remember?" He asked.

"Yes. It was a place me and my father would go to train. He always said that the moors that surrounded it were an ideal place to learn how to ride a horse." She answered.

"It's where I learned how to ride a horse as well. Me and the Lord's second son would ride there when we had time off between lessons."

"You two can ride horses? That's so cool! I remember when Ren and I were at the orphanage there was a field nearby where a bunch of horses would graze and-" Nora started before Ren interrupted her.

"They were ponies, Nora. Not horses." He corrected.

"A pony's just a short horse!" She replied.

"She's right. They're just smaller, stockier breeds of horses. My family had a pair to pull the plough for my father's fields." Wetzlar added.

"See, Ren? A time traveling farmer's backing me up! I knew I was right!"

Ren facepalmed at her response.

Wetzlar waved goodbye to team RWBY and JNPR as he ascended the stairs to the fourth floor of the dorms.

According to what Goodwitch had told him, the academy rarely had more than enough first-years to fill the fourth floor, since the acceptance rates for huntsmen to Beacon was more strict than the other three academies. For all intents and purposes his room was the only one that was inhabited on the fourth floor.

It didn't faze him, though. Had he been younger, the thought of being alone like this would have terrified him, but there were few things he could say he was truly afraid of anymore.

He slid his scroll over the small metal pad that functioned as the lock for his room and entered. It was just as he had left it, with his bag opened and its contents spread over one of the three additional beds.

He knew why there were three. According to the multiple earfuls he had been subject to during dinner the eight students were split into four-person teams, each being paired into two-person partnerships.

He didn't get all of it. He understood the reason behind having them all stay in the same rooms, and he thought it was most likely to build a camaraderie between the teammates so they would work better in the field, but he'd only been used to what he knew, and that wouldn't have made much sense to them. At least that was what he thought.

He sat down on his bed and looked around the room. He would, without any shadow of a doubt, have to get used to living here. He'd have to get used to living with those loud girls right underneath his room.

He shuddered at the thought of walking into another pillow fight, if that war zone he had stumbled into could be called that.

He yawned and stretched as he realized exactly how tired he was. The day had been rather eventful, he had to say that about it. As he stripped down to sleep he thought about the two teams who had tried to be friendly with him, how they tried to make him feel like he was just, for all intents and purposes, another student here.

He needed to sleep, though. Ruby and company were going to take him to meet the professors tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2: Settling In

**Good news! I'm not dead! Good lord, does life love to throw curve-balls at me! This took me too long to get out!** **Now, to those who read the first chapter of this, I made some changes to the first chapter.** **Anyway, I hope you enjoy and like last time, I appreciate any criticism you can give me!**

* * *

Wetzlar shot up in his bed, his breathing was rapid and his heart beat out of his chest. As his breathing slowed down he looked out of the window that his bed was situated in front of and saw the sun as it peaked over the horizon.

He looked around his room before he stood up and prepared himself for the day ahead of him. As he threw on his clothes rather quickly, he stopped for a moment when he reached for his cloth. The piece of fabric, if one were to look at it in passing, would just see it as a headband and nothing more. If one were to look at it closer, however, they could note the raggedness of the edges, as if it was a piece torn from something larger than itself. He eyed it for some time, appreciating the fact that he still had it with him, that he still had this piece of his past life. That, and his tattoo, were the two things that would hopefully be with him for the rest of his life.

As he pushed his hair back, donned it and pulled it tight, he looked out the window in the direction of the morning sun. He wondered, just for a second, what his comrades would have thought of the sun today. He tried to think of something unfunny, of one of the many "jokes" that Casimir would have told, or of the way that Rook would greet the sun in that strange, almost ritual-like manner that he always did in the mornings.

He heard a knock on his door, and when he answered it he was greeted by the girls of team RWBY, who were, just like Ruby had promised him the night before, most likely about to take him to meet the professors of this academy that he called home for now. They looked ready for classes, with their uniforms clean and pressed. He noticed that the only two who actively paid attention to him were Yang and Ruby, the two supposed sisters.

"Hey." He greeted, shutting the door behind him as he walked out into the hallway.

"So are you ready to meet... Hey, you're eyes are red. Are you okay?" Ruby asked.

He blinked then rubbed his eyes. He knew what she was talking about. He didn't want to share it with them though.

"Yeah. Fine." He answered.

"Are you sure? We can-" Ruby started, but Wetzlar held up his hand to cut her off.

"I'm fine." He reaffirmed, his voice stern.

"If you say so." She replied.

He knew what she was talking about, had even heard the defeat in her voice as she backed down. He'd woken up multiple times before like that, his eyes red and wet. He wasn't one to open up, though. He'll deal with it the way he normally did, but he'd have to get some time away from this place.

"So you ready to meet the teachers?" Yang interjected.

"Better now than later, since I'm here for the long haul." He replied.

He shrugged to emphasize it, and that somehow drew the attention of the one with white hair. He only remembered her as the one who got pulled out from that pile of pillows, but also as the one that didn't really interact that much with him during dinner last night.

"You could maybe stand to be a little more excited." Weiss stated, her tone one of annoyance.

"Never been much of a morning person. I'll be excited in, let's say, two more hours." He replied.

He yawned and stretched before composing himself, then walked toward the stairs. He turned and looked at the four girls expectantly.

"So are we going?"

Yang, Ruby, and Blake looked at each other and nodded, then followed suit. Weiss, with a shake of her head, followed along. Just how could her teammates accept this guy so easily? She knew what he had been through. Ruby had made sure that JNPR and the rest of her team knew, since from what Weiss could gather she wanted this guy to feel like he wasn't some sort of outcast.

She could sympathise with that, even if she would never admit it.

They walked out of the dorms and onto the path that led to the campus grounds, and as Wetzlar watched the throng of students that they had joined as they journeyed to their respective classes, he heard Ruby speak up.

"So we're going to head to Professor Oobleck's class first. He teaches history." She explained.

"Anything I should know about him?" Wetzlar asked.

"Nothing you won't pick up easy enough." Yang answered.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You'll see when we get there."

* * *

Ozpin sipped his drink as he stared at the terminal screen. The dim light of the screen illuminated his features slightly, the dark circles under his eyes apparent in the poorly-lit office. He once again drew himself from his drink to the records before him. It had taken him a lot of effort to get these, and he was sure that the headmaster of Haven was confused, but he did not inquire further and simply sent the documents over. According to him, they were just archived for the purpose of archival, but other than that they were rarely, if ever studied. As Ozpin pored over the lists and lists of scanned papers, he finally found something.

 _Wetzlar Traurig, formerly of the Briar Glen Swords Company, transferred into leading role of Platoon Two, Battalion Four of the Mistral Special Detachment Regiment after the Battle of Shion Fields. Awarded Silver Flame for gallant heroism, valor and brotherhood above and beyond the call of duty during the Battle of Windpath. Presumed missing in action during the Third Invasion of Vale._

He read on. The document, which was more than a simple list of names, and a few stood out to him amongst the scanned, yellowed paper.

 _Casimir Z'loto and... Martis Nikos?_

He knew those names, albeit he knew more about the former than the latter, but the latter's surname most certainly intrigued him.

He would have to look into this further when his time permitted it, for as the sun peeked into his office he knew that it was time for him to get some rest.

* * *

The sound of someone frantically moving within the room before them could easily be heard, as the doors, which were left open, did little to muffle the sound. Wetzlar watched as students simply filed into the classroom, not even caring what it was that made that sound. He stood still as students passed by him, some giving him a quizzical look before entering, while others didn't even give him the time of day as they passed by him, absorbed in their scrolls.

Team RWBY joined the throng, much to Wetzlar's surprise. But when Ruby peeked out of the doorway and motioned for him to follow, he did so, even if it was against his better judgement. As he walked in, he looked around and noticed the blur that moved from left to right at the front of the classroom. The way that the other students simply dismissed it and went to sit with their friends made it clear to him that this must have been their professor.

When he got to his seat, he felt very out of place. Most of it had to do with how the students around him that were not team RWBY looked at him with confusion and suspicion. It made sense to him, since he knew that he did not look like a student.

It must have been more than that, though. He had been the talk of the place for the last few days, so seeing him in the flesh must have been a surprise for the ones who didn't see his not-so-spectacular entrance.

The blur came to a stop as the bell rang and the doors behind to the classroom closed, and what had once been a blur was now who Wetzlar had expected; a man with green hair who definitely screamed scholar, even with how disheveled he looked. He watched as the man pushed his glasses up and looked around the room before he began to speak.

"Good morning students! I hope that you all are prepared for today's class for we have a very proportionate amount of material to go over! But before we begin I'd like to know who it is that's joining us today!" He said.

Wetzlar blinked in confusion at what the man had said. He talked so quickly that he didn't know how to react. A silence fell over the classroom as Wetzlar looked around, then pointed at himself in confusion.

"You mean me?" He asked.

"Who else would I be talking to? Would you like to introduce yourself?" The Doctor asked.

"Uhh..."

He hesitated as he looked about the room once more and noticed that all eyes were upon him.

"Come now! You've no reason to be shy!" Oobleck goaded.

"I'm, uh, Wetzlar Traurig. I'm the guy who, uh, was dying in front of your school a week ago. I got invited to sit in on one of these classes. Don't mind me, I'll keep quiet." Wetzlar said.

He put on an embarrassed smile and waved weakly, but no one waved back at him, save for a few of the friendlier students.

"It's good to finally meet you Wetzlar! I'm Bartholomew Oobleck, but you may call me Doctor Oobleck for now."

Without even skipping a beat, the man began with his lecture.

"Now students, in the year six BT, that means before Vytal, Mister Traurig, Mantle and Vale had reached somewhat of a stalemate and Vacuo had long since been considered a lost cause to all but Mantle, who, despite their shortcomings, were able to keep a foothold against their opponents. Around this time, Mantle set out to subjugate the northernmost provinces of Mistral."

Wetzlar blinked and watched as the man sped from one end of the classroom to the other. He tried to make sense of what the man had just fired off, but the speed in which he had spoken had allowed him to make out three words: Mantle, Mistral, and subjugate.

Out of instinct he raised his hand.

"Ah, Mister Traurig! I'm surprised to see one so eager at this hour! So, what tactic did Mantle utilize during the initial invasion of Mistral that proved rather effective?" Oobleck asked.

"They'd attack fast and overwhelm you with their firepower. Then they'd stick people at whatever they captured and wait for reinforcements, and most of the time anything heavily fortified had some sort of weapon emplacement. It made it hard to retake places in an open battle. Their shock troops were usually at the forefront of an assault and you didn't want to get surrounded by them. If you did, you'd best pray that they let you surrender." Wetzlar answered.

"Very good Mister Traurig! I recall Headmaster Ozpin telling my associates and I of your situation and I'm relieved to see that he wasn't playing a joke on us!"

A murmur made it's way around the room as students looked at Wetzlar in surprise. The way that they looked at him, the way that they talked under their breath, in hushed tones, got on his nerves. He kept a cool head, though. He sat stock still, his gaze concentrated on the table upon which he rested his elbows. After a while the murmurs stopped and class resumed. As Oobleck went back to his lecture, Wetzlar let out a sigh of relief. He felt someone's gaze on him and he looked around, then his eyes met Ruby's.

She bore a look of concern, but he didn't know why. Their murmurs didn't get to him. For some reason, he didn't like seeing her like that. Maybe it was the way that she tried to help him fit in here, or that she, like her sister, had been the first to act when he was found.

"They got problems with me being here then it's their problem. It'd be real boring just sitting up in that room all day." He said.

"I wouldn't push it. If Ozpin thinks you're stirring up trouble he'd definitely get involved." Blake replied, having heard him.

"I won't make a big fuss or cause any trouble. Like I said: it'd be boring up in that room the whole day." He replied.

He returned his attention to the lesson, and as he listened to Oobleck drone on and on about the Animus Front, as it was called now. He remembered it as just "The Front". though. He thought back to the night before and how even though he had tried to sleep, it didn't come until the early hours of the morning. He began to doze off, his chin rested in his hand.

* * *

Within the halls of the estate of Lord Nikos, a pair of teenaged boys watched from the windows as the train of villagers from Briar Glen left their homes. Many of them shared wagons and carriages, but many more were left to walk and could only take what they could carry. The two boys looked at each other. One of them, the one with brown hair, shook his head, the scowl that graced his lips readily apparent in the dim light of the lanterns that hung upon the walls.

"We shouldn't have to leave," He said, his voice low and sullen.

He looked away from the window, for he didn't want to see his own family trudge along, their farm ponies now pulling their wagon.

"You don't think I know that, Wetzlar? Do you think _I_ want to leave? We're lucky we were told at all that Vale was coming! We're too far from the Trade Route, and if it weren't for the messenger from Windpath..." The other boy responded.

This one ran a hand through his bright-red hair, his face a contortion of sadness and anger. They'd heard the stories from the refugees that had passed through, of men in armor, with firearms within their blades. They were followed by battalions of soldiers, all armed with rifles, ones that held more than one shot, but still only had one barrel, and large guns, much more sophisticated than the cannons Lord Nikos had lining his battlements, on wheels. The ones who had been quick told tales of these men, that they were told that they were members of the Army of Mantle and that they were preparing for an invasion from Vale, that they should leave as soon as they could, lest they face the wrath of that Kingdom. They didn't stay in Briar Glen long, for many of them were headed to the Kingdom proper, where the council and the king had supposedly been preparing the army for assistance.

A voice echoed down the hall and drew the two from their conversation. The voice was one of an older man, and the commanding tone in his voice caused the two to listen with rapt attention.

"Wetzlar! Martis! We've loaded the wagons! Do you _want_ to be left behind?" The man called.

A silence was shared between the two before Martis spoke up.

"We'll be there shortly, Father!" He said, a slight waver in his voice.

The two looked at each other and nodded, then made to do as he had ordered.

* * *

The sound of the bell ringing woke Wetzlar, who shot up in surprise. He reached behind him, over his right shoulder for something but when he found nothing there, he relaxed. He remembered. They had confiscated his weaponry when they found him dying in the middle of the entranceway to their school. What he had done had been caught by many a soul however, and he felt someone tap his shoulder. He didn't have to deduct who it must have been, but he turned around anyway. It was the polite thing to do after all.

"Bad dream?" Yang asked.

He made out the slight mocking tone she carried but shrugged it off.

"I'd call it bad. Still not as bad as the one involving a beowolf, a jar of butter and a stuffed elk though." He answered.

She smirked at his poor attempt at humor, and slapped him on the back in appreciation hard enough to make him stumble forward slightly. She was strong, he'd give her that.

"You're lucky Yatsuhashi was seated in front of you or Oobleck would've known you'd fallen asleep." Weiss scolded.

"And _why_ am I lucky?" He asked.

His voice dripped with sarcasm and it noticeably angered the Heiress, as she scowled at him and crossed her arms and looked away, it being made quite apparent that he had annoyed her.

"You're lucky that I'm eager to learn from you, Mister Traurig, or otherwise I'd most likely assign you a fifty-page essay on the importance of the Mistral Trade Route to the Animus Front." Oobleck answered, his tone just as rapid as it had been before.

The Young Man jumped in surprise, and as he tensed up once more and turned to face the teacher he was surprised at the man's expression. The man looked to not be phased by him in the slightest.

"Now now, Mister Traurig. None of us mean to harm you here." Oobleck assured.

"Yeah. Sorry." Wetzlar replied.

He looked between the girls and the Doctor. Oobleck had noted the way his posture relaxed when they assured him that he would come to no harm. He would have to speak to Ozpin about this.

"Still not used to this place." Wetzlar answered.

He shook his head in shame at his actions.

"Quite understandable, Mister Traurig. Over the next few weeks we shall be covering the Animus Front in vivid detail and I was wondering if you took part in it. From how you spoke of the tactics that Mantle used you must have seen them in action."

Wetzlar nodded in response.

"Yeah. Fought with em' for a while. I was a First Lieutenant within the Special Detachment Regiment."

"Excellent, simply excellent! Well, Mister Traurig if I may be so bold to ask: would you be willing to speak of your experiences? One such as yourself, what with your... surprising placement within their forces."

Wetzlar looked down at the ground as he weighed Doctor Oobleck's request. He thought of his comrades, wondered in anyone knew their names, knew anything about what they did.

He thought of Casimir, of Rook, of the many others of the Special Detachment, and finally of Martis. He knew of their accomplishments, of their stories and their struggles, but did anyone else? Maybe a historian knew, and that would have been enough for all of them, he was sure of that.

He brought his eyes to team RWBY, who in turn nodded, save for Weiss, who still chose not to meet his gaze. He looked back at Oobleck.

"I talk about it in detail. No cutting things out and no censoring myself, aside from my blue language. Sound fine to you?" He answered.

Oobleck nodded in response, then extended his hand, which Wetzlar gladly met, and as the two shook hands, Wetzlar felt relieved. Relieved that hopefully he would not have to be stuck in that room all day.

He felt a tap on his shoulder and he looked to see who it was. Ruby looked up at him as she pointed at her wrist in a gesture he knew all too well.

"Doctor, we can talk later. I'm in a bit of a hurry." He explained.

Oobleck looked first at Wetzlar, then at team RWBY, then once again at Wetzlar. When he returned his gaze back to Wetzlar he looked to have understood what he had meant. He waved goodbye to Oobleck as he left the classroom behind with the girls, who were intent on heading to their next class.

* * *

"...And then, after weeks of combing the countryside I discovered the beast's lair! The monster had holed itself within the deepest of it caverns, and so I sought to draw it out into a more strategic field..." The man droned.

Wetzlar looked at the professor once more. He noted how the man was rather portly, but that wasn't something he focused on. The man was a professor here so he would show him the same respect he would anyone else. He looked around the classroom and noted that many students, Ruby and Blake included, shared his feeling of boredom. This man was smart, he had to be to teach at a place like this, but why did he have to pad out these tales? The lesson at the end is the most important part. He eyed that bust on the professor's desk once more and cringed. Just what kind of person keeps a bust of themselves within their classroom?

For the life of him, he just couldn't bear listening to the man's stories any more. After two hours he had begun to grow anxious for the class to end. He leaned closer to Blake, who appeared enraptured in the book she had brought with her, having done a rather sneaky tactic of hiding the book she read within her textbook.

"When's the class over again?" He whispered.

His question drew her back to reality, and she tore herself away from whatever story she read to look at him.

"It should be over soon." She replied.

With that she drew herself back to her book and left Wetzlar to ponder on the man's story. He'd not been keeping rapt attention like some, but he got the gist of it if he were questioned on it.

"As the beast fell to the ground, I knew I had been victorious. Does anyone understand the lesson here?" Port asked.

He scanned the room and focused on Weiss, whose hand was the only one raised.

"Miss Schee: what do you suppose the lesson of this story is?" He asked.

The Heiress paused to clear her throat and then spoke, her voice loud and her tone confident.

"The lesson is that one should always be careful of their surroundings." She answered, her head held high.

"Correct, Miss Schnee! When I spoke of the way the Grimm used it's tail to knock stalactites and almost end the life of your favorite professor! Grimm, the more they age and mature, develop something akin to an intelligence, albeit a cunning, devious and sadistic one. This specific creature must have been almost a century old if I had to go off of what the villagers told me!"

The ringing of the bell signaled the end of class, and as the students filed out to their next class, Port spoke at them.

"Enjoy your afternoon, students! Team RWBY, can you and your friend stay for a moment? I wish to have a word with you all." He stated.

RWBY looked at each other in worry, while Wetzlar looked at them in confusion. They descended the path down to Port's desk, a handful of other students watching for a moment before they too left the classroom.

Port eyed the group, keeping silent until the last of the students filed out. The silence that he showed now was unnerving to the team, considering the professor's usual disposition.

"Well Mister Traurig, it's a pleasure to finally get to meet you!" The Professor said.

"It's a, uh," Wetzlar started.

He looked at Yang with concern, but she simply shrugged in response.

"A pleasure to meet you too, Sir." He finished.

The two shook hands, and Wetzlar noted the professor's rather firm grip. That, along with the callouses and roughness of his hand was something that told Wetzlar that this man had experience.

"Doctor Oobleck told me that you were in the company of Team RWBY, so I knew you were going to be joining us today. It's not every day one gets to meet someone like you!"

"What? A time traveler?" Wetzlar responded.

"Well... yes. Along with that though, you're someone who must have seen first-hand how grimm acted during the Great War!"

"Kind of. We'd deal with them sometimes but it wasn't that common for us. Well, for me at the beginning, we mostly maintained structures for a while and so we'd sometimes run into a beowolf or a pack of them holed up in a crumbling fort or somesuch, but we usually killed them easily enough. As far as I know they've always acted the same. The ones who lived in those places for a while knew them better than us but that's a given."

"Hmm..."

Port looked lost in thought as he twisted one of the ends of his moustache, his gaze fixed upon the floor. Wetzlar looked back at the others, who looked at him, with Yang's eyes moving to the door occasionally, as if to tell him something.

"Sir, sorry but we're in a bit of a hurry." He explained.

"Oh, I understand! You all run along now!"

The team turned to leave, and Wetzlar shook hands with Port, the two exchanging goodbyes before he followed them out the door.

* * *

Wetzlar watched the two in the ring from the sidelines. The two people fought well, for students if he had to guess, but he saw openings that could have been exploited, so many chances to get the upper hand! He watched as one of them, a boy somewhat younger than himself if he had to guess, try to dodge his opponent's strike, only for his footwork to fall short and himself be thrown quite far back by the force of the swing.

It was the armor he wore. The extra weight must have been what threw him off, and for some reason the boy didn't doff the steel, or at least what Wetzlar must have thought was steel, for more maneuverability. He had aura. He didn't need that heavy of armor! If he was that afraid of an attack he could wear a mail shirt. That's what Wetzlar did.

With another landed blow, the fight was over. Glynda, or "Professor Goodwitch", as she was to be called in front of students, walked into the ring. He watched her as she adjusted her glasses and looked once more at the large scroll she held, before looking between the two combatants.

"Mister Bronzewing, you must remember to keep your guard up. And I have to recommend once more that you remove that armor, it's just too heavy for you." She advised.

The student nodded, his head held low. The other one on the other hand looked as if she knew that she would have won without even the slightest effort.

"Miss Schnee, I must remind you not to overexert yourself. I know that you've been working to fix that, and I recommend that you continue with your regimen."

Weiss nodded, her thin smirk only lowering slightly at professor Goodwitch's recommendation. The two descended the sets of stairs that led back to where the other students sat at and rejoined their respective teams, with Team RWBY accepting Weiss with compliments and praise, while Dove was met with encouragement from two of his teammates, while one of them, a broad-shouldered lad with bird of some sort emblazoned upon his breastplate, rolled his eyes before crossing his arms and glaring at the Heiress.

When Weiss returned to Team RWBY's seating and to the cheers and compliments from her team and the members of JNPR, Wetzlar watched as Glynda tapped at her scroll once more. She was nice, that was definitely something that he could say about her. He had an understanding of how the student body respected and feared her, with more of it falling into the latter than the former. He could kind of understand, what with her almost-eternally stern expression and serious demeanor almost reminding him of one of his former comrades.

A "dragon woman", as his father would have described her, most likely.

"Now, we have time for one more bout. Would anyone like to volunteer?" She asked as her gaze shifted from her scroll to her students.

More than a few hands shot up, and in but a moment the professor had her candidates. She looked down at her scroll once more and tapped upon it once more.

"Mister Arc, you will be facing Mister Winchester." She explained.

The two she mentioned rose from their seats and ascended the stairs to the ring, where they stood facing each other, a fair distance between them. Wetzlar saw the smirk on this Winchester's face, and to him it spoke of cockiness, of arrogance, of the kind of man that knew he would win this bout without even breaking a sweat.

And he was right to believe that about himself. The fight, if it could even be called that, was something of a spectacle that, by the end, made Wetzlar's jaw drop in amazement. Just how could Jaune have made it into this place? The poor excuse of an offense that he had made him cringe in embarrassment for even having witnessed it. The other one, that Winchester, wasn't much better. His swings were too choreographed, and his defense was too poor. That creative fighting he'd used on Jaune made up for it somewhat in his eyes, but still wasn't enough to redeem the boy. He'd had lost count of the amount of openings that he had noticed in his defense, and was surprised that Jaune seemed to simply not notice them.

He shook his head at both of their performances. If this was what he had to think, just what would Glynda think? That kind of dreadful performance would have ended with him being forced to run about the estate with at least ten stone worth of rocks on his back for an hour.

"Mister Arc, it's been weeks now. Please try to refer to your scroll during combat! Gauging your aura will help you to decide when it is appropriate to attack or when it is better to move to a more... defensive strategy." She commented.

Wetzlar watched as Jaune pulled out something and looked at it. It must have been one of those scroll things like he had.

"We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a beowolf, now would we?"

He watched as Winchester mumbled something, a grimace on his face before shouldering his weapon and exiting the ring. He had a feeling about him, that kind of feeling he got when he knew someone wasn't worth trying to be friendly toward.

The tone that signaled the end of a class sounded and the students once again left the classroom. At the end of it all, Wetzlar had told RWBY that he could make it back to the dorms on his own. Glynda, who had easily noticed him amidst the other students, stood in the ring still, her gaze fixated on him.

"Did you enjoy the lesson, Wetzlar?" She asked.

"I liked seeing something that I get, that I understand, but I still wish I could get some practice in." He answered.

He walked over from his place at the edge of the lecture area to the edge of ring, a part of the architecture that had been built up, to where it came up to Wetzlar's waist. Glynda's gaze following him the whole way there. He looked at her and then at the ring, then at her again before he rested his elbows on it.

"I could understand why you would want practice, but I also think you could do with a fair amount of rest." She replied.

"And I think I could do with a fair amount of practice."

"You were stabbed in the stomach. There was an exit wound in your back. It went all the way through you."

"I've been stabbed before."

"In your time, it would have been a _mortal wound_."

"I know."

Glynda could tell that he was conflicted about this. She could see it in his expression, the way he carried himself as he mulled over something in his head.

"I don't know how I can repay you for what you all did for me. Honestly, I don't know what I could think to do, maybe work here, or try to make something of myself elsewhere, but I feel like I should repay you all, and there isn't any way you'll be able to do to stop me, even if you all try to say that it was nothing, or try to wave it off as charity. In my time, we repaid any and all debts owed to someone." He said with a smirk.

The smirk that graced his features vanished though, just as quickly as it had came, and was replaced with a stern expression.

"But I want to know, though: Where's my sword? I'd really like to see it again. It's really important to me."

Glynda walked over to the side of the ring, toward another set of stairs that led to a hallway. She beckoned for Wetzlar to follow, and he did as she ordered. He followed close behind her. He could feel the tension in the air as the two made their way to, if he had to trust Glynda, the place they kept his most prized possession.

"A lot of them are pretty skilled. I've got to commend that Weiss girl's swordsmanship." He said, in an attempt to break the silence.

"Many of them are from combat schools that train them from a young age to become huntsmen and huntresses." She replied, her stride not breaking for even a second.

"How young are we talking here? I started training when I was six."

"Roughly around that same age. Some of them start younger than that."

He chuckled at her response. Not because he found it funny, but because he could relate to that.

"Sure doesn't show in some of them. That one who fought Weiss surely didn't know what he was doing. That armor was too heavy for him, he should ditch it and go for something lighter, something that could suit his agility more, like leather or a mail shirt, off the top of my head."

"The entirety of Team Cardinal are troublemakers and I don't know how they made it in, but they at least have an understanding of their weaknesses. Mister Bronzewing knows that armor is too heavy for him, but he believes he can learn to work in it. They'll learn when reality knocks them down a peg or two."

That stopped Wetzlar in his tracks, another chuckle escaping him. He quickly jogged up to Glynda to match her pace once more.

"Damn. Didn't think a teacher would say that about a student." He said, his smirk audible in his voice.

"I've taught here at Beacon for over a decade, Wetzlar. I've seen countless others similar to Team Cardinal, and I don't doubt that I'll see more like them."

She stopped outside a pair of doors, her turning to look at Wetzlar once more.

"This is the male armory. You'll find your sword and other belongings that were soiled in your arrival in locker two-oh-three, just wave your scroll near the black square on the locker and it will unlock for you." She stated.

"Can I practice with it a bit? I know that you're against it, but I'd just like to run through some drills again. No fighting anyone. I'll return it right after." He replied.

The look she bore spoke of slight annoyance at his request, but with a blink and a nod she answered him.

"I don't really have an answer for that. I need to make a call, so you go inspect your weapon."

He smiled at that. He opened the door, but before he went in he looked back at her. He was going to thank her, but he froze up for a moment as he looked at her. She still had that stern look that she always had, even when she was filling him in on the current state of the world, but he could see that her eyes conveyed a sense of accomplishment, like she had done something that she'd thought that she had never been able to. She knew that he was grateful. He never let her hear the end of it, as of yet.

"Uhh... what number was it?" He asked.

The question must have caught her off guard, as he noticed how she jumped, just barely at his question.

"Two-oh-three."

"Thanks."

The armory was something of, well, something that Wetzlar felt more welcome in. The rows upon rows of lockers that held weaponry of supposedly all sorts was something that he could at least wrap his head around.

It didn't take him long to reach the locker that Glynda had told him about. It was pretty far out from the lockers that were in use, which he had gathered were the ones that had a green light on it and the name of someone in the center. He found locker two-oh-three, which did say his name, and when he did as Glynda instructed him to, the locker, with a click, opened.

His heart skipped a beat.

There, within the locker, sat his gear. All of it. He thought that at least some of it would have been lost, pilfered in some manner, but it was all there. His sword, in its scabbard, hung upon a hook in the middle of the locker. His pistols, the one that was truly his in its holster, sat on a small shelf built into the side of the locker, where his uniform and armor, clean and repaired, hung below. On the floor of the locker, in as neat of a pile as whomever placed these here could achieve, sat the myriad of pouches and the somewhat larger belt pack he used to store his valuables.

He only grabbed what he knew he'd need for this, that being his sword. With a steady hand, he fastened the piece's harness to his hip where it belonged. With that familiar weight on him, he cautiously drew the sword from its scabbard. The weight felt familiar, and as he gave the blade an experimental twirl, he knew that it had not been tampered with. He touched the blade, his finger tracing up the fuller.

The blade wasn't overly complex like some of the designs that he'd noticed during that class. There wasn't any filigree or engravings along the blade, or any gold or other precious metals within it. That was not to say it was plain, either. The sword, a longsword, one that had been made for the specific style he knew oh so well, had the utmost love and care put into its creation and any warrior worth their salt could tell that with a look of the weapon's silvery, beautifully shining blade, of the glint it made in the light and the fineness of the edge. It could cleave a man in twain with little effort. Baron Nikos wasn't the kind of man to simply send his men out into the field with tools that would not hold up to the skill of the ones using them, for he had taken on one of the few legendary smiths of Mistral to work in his own armory. This sword was worth easily a king's ransom, and he would never part with it so long as he drew breath.

The cold steel welcomed him like the old friend it was, and he felt a sense of relief that he could hold the blade, feel its weight, and hopefully use it more than just this one time.

The sound of the door opening brought him back to reality, and as he turned to see the face of Glynda, her expression one of curiousity, he smiled at her and she smiled back. It wasn't much, just a slight one, more like a smirk, but he could tell it was there. He sheathed his blade once more and reached for his pistol.

As he held the gun, the clicking of Glynda's heels on the tile floor made it evident that she had approached him.

"It's a fine weapon." She said.

"A gift from Mantle to select groups of officers. It's a piece of trash compared to what I saw them using, though. It'll put down a man or a grimm like it's nothing, though, and the thing's damn near unbreakable too. With everything that it went through it shouldn't even be able to fire." He explained.

He ran his finger along the frame, his fingers feeling the pockmarks and scuffs that it had accrued in his service, the slight bend in the left wing of the winged front sight and they brought back memories. The memories weren't fond, but they came nonetheless.

He'd whipped a Valen officer with it in an attempt to take him prisoner. He'd hit him too hard and it had killed the man. He remembered the impact of the pistol against the man's skull and how he simply slumped over. He'd been inexperienced in war then, and the adrenaline and chaos of the melee they had embroiled themselves in clouded his judgement.

With a sigh he placed the pistol back in the locker. He wouldn't need it right now. He'd only need his sword, the weapon he had trained almost his entire life with.

"I spoke with the Headmaster. He told me that as long as I oversaw it, you could practice. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready." He stated.

"Then let's go." Glynda replied.

He nodded at her, then the two of them left the armory behind and returned to the arena. There were more people in it since he had left. Three other professors and two students

"Hello again, Wetzlar." Ozpin greeted, a wave accompanying it.

"Hello." He replied in kind.

Then the thought hit him. Maybe he wasn't supposed to be wielding his sword right now, and that somehow he'd gotten Glynda in trouble. He didn't think that practicing would be enough to warrant all of them here! Just how much trouble would he-

Wait. Why were team Jaune and Ruby here too?

He looked between Glynda, whose stern look gave him a sense of comfort, even when it shouldn't have, and Ozpin's blank, emotionless stare.

"Am I in trouble? Don't blame Glynda, I wanted to practice a bit and-"

Ozpin raised his hand to stop him speaking, and he did so. He watched as Ozpin took a sip from his mug before he spoke.

"You're not in trouble and neither is Professor Goodwitch, Wetzlar. I can understand wanting to get back into the swing of things, as one would say. Her and I had discussed this beforehand, but she thought you should rest more." He replied.

A wave of relief washed over him, but only for a moment as he looked once more at the two team leaders who joined them. His gaze fell on Ruby, who waved at him sheepishly, with him waving back in kind.

"Jaune and I wanted to speak with Professor Goodwitch about something, but I forgot about it. When I remembered it we came back she wasn't here but we thought she might come back so we stayed."

"Yeah. We didn't mean to be creepy but we thought you'd come back, Professor."

"I was about to let Wetzlar commence some training. We'll speak about it later if that's fine with the two of you." Glynda said.

At the mention of that, Ruby perked up instantly, returning to the energetic and chipper huntress-in-training that they knew her as.

"Oh! Can we watch?! Please? Please?!" Ruby asked, her voice rife with anticipation.

Wetzlar looked at Glynda, whose gaze turned to him after she asked that.

"I'm okay with it." He said.

"I... I don't know if-" Glynda started.

"Come now, Glynda! Let them stay! It's not every day that someone gets to see the combat tactics used by a member of the Mistrali Army!" Oobleck piped up.

"Bartholomew! Show some-"

"I have to agree with Bart, Glynda! This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment we would be witnessing! There aren't many veterans of the Great War left, you know!" Port added.

"If I could-"

"Glynda, I would hate to pick sides, but it appears to be four-to-one on this matter." Ozpin interrupted, a sip of his coffee following.

Her eyes widened at his words, her mouth agape for but a moment before she found her words. Wetzlar couldn't help but smirk at her astonishment. He watched Ruby's eyes widen and the smile on her face grow. Jaune however, spoke to Ruby in a hushed tone, with a nod of confirmation from her in response, then he left the classroom.

He watched as Glynda tapped at her scroll some more, the whirring of machinery slowly coming into earshot for him.

"Wetzlar, would you prefer any specific species of Grimm?" She asked.

"What kinds you have? You gonna bring em' out, or is some kinda hole gonna open in the floor or something?"

"Oh, no. We have, in our possession, a machine that creates a near-lifelike representation of any of the known and well-documented species of Grimm, such as Beowolves, Nevermores and the like." She explained.

He paused for a moment, as if he was trying to decipher what she said.

"You've got a machine." He said.

"Yes." She replied.

"That makes Grimm. Like, out of thin air?"

Glynda nodded, as did Oobleck and Port.

"I don't really... Y'know, just, uh, just surprise me. Far as I know you don't get the chance to decide."

Glynda, in response, tapped some more on her scroll, which caused more noise from the machinery that Wetzlar still had not seen. In just a moment, though, a pale-blue light shot out from above him and within it, materialized a Beowolf.

It looked like a Beowolf, even if it was twice the size of the biggest he had ever seen, and the same color as the shaft of light it had came in on. It growled at him as it hunched over slightly, readying itself for the inevitable conflict. Wetzlar, in response, brought his other hand to his sword's hilt and gripped it tightly, readying it in one of the ways he had been taught, with the blade rested on his shoulder. The creature appeared to be sizing him up, it's head moving ever so slightly up and down.

"Wetzlar, I've ran a program that will continue to spawn Grimm until your aura reaches a certain level. This first wave will consist of a singular Alpha Beowolf." She explained, her voice amplified by something.

Wetzlar nodded in response, waiting for the beast to attack. It was something he had learned long ago, when he was younger. Lord Nikos's captain of the guard was rather adept at the slaying of Grimm and he made sure that all of the soldiers under his command knew how to fight them well. He went over the words he'd said to them time and time again in his head.

 _Ye let the creature be the one to' make the first move if possible. Now, they ain't smart like a human, but they'll always try to get the upper hand on ye, so watch them as close as ye can without blinding yourself to the world around ye._

The thing sped forward, it's claws, wicked and razor-sharp, bared at him. Wetzlar let the beast get close, close enough that it could pounce at him, like it did and he had expected of it. With a bit of quick footwork, he dodged the creature, his blade finding its hide as he swung it. He felt the impact, the way that only a clean hit could tell him, and he turned to face the creature as it readied itself to lunge at him once more.

The beast had succumbed to a rather grievous injury, if he had to say. He had never lost trust in the steel he was given, and the thing had proved its worth once more. The beowolf had a large gash in its right side, with the blade leaving it in a nasty state that would have killed anything lesser outright. He gave the blade a twirl, as if to taunt the it, and readied his sword once more.

The Beowolf lunged again, this time being somewhat more on target as he felt the claws graze his shoulder. Even with that, he was able to wound it too, and much worse than the thing did to him, as the creature fell limp as it hit the ground once more and then disappear, as all Grimm do when they are felled.

He heard two things. The first was the sound of more machinery, and the second was clapping. He turned his head toward the source and saw that his spectators, well, one of his spectators, specifically Ruby, were clapping at his performance. He smirked at that. At least he was putting on a good performance. The sound of the machine making more Grimm, and he readied himself accordingly. When he turned around, it was more than just a single alpha, but two, with eight lesser beowolves to back them up.

He smirked. This kind of practice was something he could grow used to.

* * *

Wetzlar walked back to the dorms from the teacher's lounge. When he looked out over the cliffside at the city below them, with the lights from the city driving away the foul darkness that covered the world, save for the light from that damned moon. On the way there, at the entrance to the path that led to the dorms, he met someone.

"Oh, hey Wetzlar!" Jaune greeted, waving to him as he approached.

"Jaune." He greeted in kind.

He looked over him and noted the way he was dressed. From what he could gather, what with himself being one of the few that were still awake at this time, he had guessed that it was nearing curfew.

"Where ya going? Shouldn't you be getting some sleep?" Wetzlar asked, his eyebrow raised.

"I'm headed out. I'll be back soon." Jaune answered.

"I'll come with. I've got trouble sleeping anyway."

He watched as Jaune's eyes widened, but he controlled himself and sighed.

"Nah man. I think I'd rather-" Jaune started.

"No one should have to travel alone. Along with that, I wanna talk."

"About what?"

"I just wanna know more about you, about your team, and team Ruby."

Jaune started to walk somewhere, and Wetzlar followed. He let Jaune lead, with himself just slightly behind. He looked at how he carried himself, with his shoulders low, like he was inferior.

"So, where you from, Jaune?" He asked.

"I'm from Vale. Well, not from the city, anyway. I lived further out, in a village. My folks used to live there for a while, but when I was younger, I think five, we moved to Mistral, since Dad found a place he liked even more than our old village. A cottage near Shion." Jaune answered.

"Shion Fields? Why the hell would you live near a battleground?" He asked.

"Shion-? No! Shion Village! Did you know about it?"

"Shion Fields was where I got transferred to the Special Detachment. Well, after the battle. There wasn't a village there when I visited. Is it nice?"

"Yeah. It's real cozy there and there's a campground where we'd go camping at. It's got a real pretty view of the lake me and my dad would fish at."

Wetzlar looked away for a moment, lost in thought. He looked back at Jaune shortly after, a smirk on his face.

"Is it a cliff, overlooking a lake that's got a big rock in the middle of it?" He asked.

Jaune nodded, and Wetzlar chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Jaune asked.

" _Real_ small world. That's where my company camped. It was our first battle. Good lord, I almost fell off the cliff when we got a little tipsy one night. Never again, I'll tell you that." Wetzlar answered.

"You guys camped there? Like, before a big battle?" Jaune asked.

Jaune's mouth hung open slightly, his eyes not coming off of Wetzlar. Wetzlar felt another pang of amusement as he looked at on at his astonishment.

"Yeah. Ten-thousand of us versus fifteen-thousand Valen."

Jaune went silent for a moment, but eventually he found his words.

"Did you..."

He hesitated once more, and Wetzlar watched as he looked away for a moment, before he found his courage again.

"Did you... kill anyone there?" He asked.

"Yeah. I killed three men there. They'd ganged up on my friend, Martis, and I got to them in time before they could kill him. Didn't like it, if that's what you were thinking. I know I didn't hesitate to answer. I didn't hesitate when I killed them, either. I ran the first one through from behind, then hamstrung the second, and when the third charged at me I disarmed him and cut his throat. The second tried to get up, but I ran him through before he could." Wetzlar said.

"Geez."

"Yep. Jaune?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't kill anyone if you can get away with it. It's a horrible thing to have to do."

The two stopped talking after that. It wasn't until they reached the edge of the campus, where the academy bordered the Emerald Forest, when they spoke again. It wasn't Wetzlar who initiated it this time, but Jaune.

"So, you sat in on classes today. Did you like it?" He asked.

"Yeah. I did. Maybe they'll let me sit in on some more." Wetzlar answered.

"You probably saw my fight with Cardin, then."

"Yep. You've got a lot to learn."

Jaune shrugged at that, then pushed a branch out of their way.

"I'm a failure. I'm just not on their level." He said.

Wetzlar could hear the dejectedness in his voice, and he knew how he felt.

"You aren't a failure if you got in here. Hell, I'll train you if you want. If there's one thing I know, it's how to fight people." Wetzlar replied.

Jaune shook his head, but he didn't seem to openly reject the idea.

"I shouldn't have to be trained. I wanna do this on my own! My dad, my granddad and my great granddad were all warriors, they were all heroes!" He said, his voice raised.

"Warriors start out just like everyone else. I wasn't as good as I am today. I got beaten, I got hurt. I broke my fingers more times than I can count. I got cut, bruised, stabbed, shot, and eventually I almost died. Everyone starts somewhere, Jaune. I watched you. You're not helpless. You just need someone to direct your potential." Wetzlar replied.

"And what if I never get better?! What if I just stay a failure?! Look, if I can't even have hold my own in a duel, what chance could I stand against someone other than Cardin?!"

He reached for his shield and activated it, and it expanded accordingly. Jaune watched as Wetzlar looked at it, his eyes wide.

"What? Is there something on it?" Jaune asked.

"That emblem,"

He pointed at the shield, his mouth bearing a slight scowl.

"I've seen it before." Wetzlar answered.

"You have?"

"Yeah. That was the emblem on the shield of the son-of-a-bitch who almost killed me."


End file.
